Final Application Deadline is Jan 12, 2026 11:59pm

The deadline applies to both (a) submission of all applications and forms and (b) payment of the application processing fee. Initial administrative review of your forms and SRC review and approval will continue after this deadline.

To confirm that your application is successfully submitted, look for your Project Code under the “Payment Submitted” section. If you do not see your Project Code then please ensure you have completed Step 5 (Pay & Submit). We strongly encourage you not to wait until the last minute to submit your payment! To check whether your project has been accepted, click Check Project Status and follow the link for your teacher/sponsor.

If you see Incomplete but haven’t received an email, first check your Spam Folders and then contact Fair Administration via the Contact page and include your 3-character Project Code. 

We kindly ask all students and teachers to allow the staff and SRC ample time to review the recent submissions.

Important Notice: If you are a returning student or require SRC pre-approval, the November 14 deadline has passed and you are not eligible to participate in the 2026 Synopsys Championship. Please do not submit payment at this time, and we encourage you to keep next year’s deadlines in mind.

Category Judge registration is now open for the 2026 Synopsys Championship on March 10, 2026! Category Judges must be present in person from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM in South Hall, San Jose Convention Center. Both returning and new judges must register here.

We need and welcome judges in all fields of study. We are looking for scientists, computer scientists, engineers and others who enjoy talking to enthusiastic young people about scientific inquiry and engineering challenges. Category Judges should have at least a Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or in education (with a concentration in a technical field). See the Category Judging page for details.

We are thrilled to report that we received a large number of applications before the deadline! With that in mind, we kindly ask all students and teachers to allow the staff ample time to review the submissions. If your project page indicates “Project Status: Payment Submitted,” you can rest assured that your submission was made on time.

To help expedite the review process, please ensure your Forms Folder includes the following PDFs:

• Project Page
• Form 1, Form 1A, Form 1B
• Hold Harmless
• Media Release
• Ethics Statement
• Research Plan
  *Some projects may also require: Additional Forms such as Form 7, 3 Form 1C, 2, 4 etc.

Additionally, please double-check the following:

• All forms have the necessary signatures.
• The correct boxes are checked on the Adult Sponsor Form 1.
• The signature dates on Form 1, Form 1B, Permission/Hold Harmless, and Form 3 are dated prior to the start of your experimentation.

Lastly, it may be several weeks before an SRC reviewer is able to evaluate your project for approval. Staff have to review before SRC can review/approve. We appreciate your patience as we work through the many submissions that came in just before the deadline.

Thursday, November 20, 7:00 to 7:45 PM

Video call link: ttps://meet.google.com/azn-memm-pjv

This is a pilot programme that will be run by high school students for first-time STEM fair participants.

Reminder: All previous participants must file a continuation form (Form 7) and submit their application for SRC pre-approval by the pre-approval deadline as required for continuation projects. SRC, not the student(s), will determine whether or not the project is a continuation of previous work.

Congratulations to Akhil Nagori, 15, from Santa Clara, CA, who won the $10,000 Broadcom Coding with Commitment ® Award for combining STEM learning with coding to solve a community problem they care about that aligns with the 17 Sustainable Development Goal of the United Nations and congratulations to Evann Sun, 14, from Santa Clara, CA, won The Lemelson Foundation Award for Invention of $10,000, which is given to a young inventor creating promising product-based solutions to real-world problems.

We’d also like to congratulate Christine Wang, from San Jose, CA, for getting a Second Place Science Award for the project “Peel To Purify: An Innovative Fruit Waste-Based Solution for Contaminated Water Treatment”

The Top 30 finalists competed in a 4-day event that included individual and team challenges in various STEM disciplines. A project showcase of their projects is available.

Please submit applications that require pre-approval as soon as possible. The deadline is Nov 14th!

SRC Pre-Approval is Required For:

• All students who have previously participated. They must submit a Continuation Form (Form 7) along with their application.
• Projects involving:
  • Biological materials or living organisms
  • Hazardous chemicals, activities, or devices
  • Regulated substances
• Projects involving human subjects, including testing devices or software apps, conducting surveys, or performing interviews.

Please note that applications are largely addressed in the order received. Completing your application by Nov 3, 2025 will enable you to have a faster response from the Scientific Review Committee. Projects that require pre-approval often need extra forms, especially projects involving humans.

If you have completed all your forms and we haven’t reached out then please make sure you have completed Step 5 (Pay & Submit). We can not review your application until it has been paid. We see many applications in the pipeline and look forward to receiving them soon!

Join one or both of our upcoming virtual Question and Answer sessions on Nov 1—one on “How to Start a Project” at 11am and another one which will focus on “Engineering Research Projects” at 1:00pm. A Zoom link will be provided after you register.

We recommend that teachers, students, and sponsors (including those supervising PSPs – privately sponsored projects) attend the session that best suits their needs to ask questions and get guidance. More details can be found here.

Polygence wants to help students get inspired! Middle and High school students who plan to participate or are considering participating in a science fair are invited to a fun and free kick off event at Biocurious- local community microbiology lab in Santa Clara on Oct 18th from 1-4pm! Click the link to register to attend.

https://polygence.org/bay-area-science-fair-events

Note: Polygence is a SCVSEFA donor organization that hosts free events and markets their service to match high school students with subject specialist mentors.

Congratulations to Akhil Nagori, Evann Sun & Lucas Shengwen Yen from Cabrillo Middle School and Christine Wang from The Harker School who are in the Top 30 Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge. They are four of the fifteen students from the Synopsys Championship who advanced from the Top 300 semi-finalists. All 30 finalists receive a $500 cash award and will participate in Finals Week in Washington, D.C., October 24 to October 29. Check out the full press release for more details!